Well of course it is, back to the neolithic times for them, if found guilty of the smallest misdemeanour they get stoned to death. Very enlightened in this modern democratic society of India.

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Who told you that? We are not middle estern countries to stone our women to death......We treat our women really better than others....We in NE give equal status to our women and actually they influence the family more than the men folks......We are a modern society which didnot forget it's ancient traditions....

Four out of ten women in India still have no say in their marriage, eight out of ten need permission to visit a doctor, six out of ten practise some form of head covering, and the average Indian household gives over 30,000 in dowry. These are among the findings of a major new large-scale sample survey shared exclusively with The Hindu.
The National Council for Applied Economic Research (NCAER) conducts the India Human Development Survey (IHDS), the largest household survey in India after the government's Nation Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) surveys, and the NCAER is the only independent body that conducts such large-sample panel surveys. The survey covers economic data on income and expenditure, development data on education and health, and sociological data on caste, gender and religion. For the next two weeks, The Hindu will report exclusively on the key findings of NCAER's latest round that covers 2011-12 data. This survey covered 42,000 households across the country, weighted nationally, and 83% of them were also interviewed for the 2004-5 round of the IHDS.
The data shows that India has made progress in child marriage, with 48% of women over 25 reporting in 2011-12 that they were married before the age of 18 as opposed to 60% in 2004-5. The average number of children that women (over 40) reported they had had has also come down slightly to 3.55, indicating that fertility is falling. The practice of marrying a cousin or relative – more common in the south than the north – is becoming less common, but over 20% in Andhra Pradesh and Karnata still marry relatives.
However, women's autonomy remains severely constrained. 41% of women had no say in their marriage and just 18% knew their husbands before marriage, a statistic that has not improved. Women's say in marriage rose with their level of education, with income and with level of urbanisation and the southern states did better.
Just 10% said that they could take the primary decision to buy large items for the house, less than 20% had their names on the house's papers and 81% needed permission to visit a doctor. 60% of women – including 59% of forward caste Hindus and 83% of Muslim women – practised some form of `purdah' or `ghunghat'. Over half of all women said it was common for women in their community to be beaten if they went out without permission.
"Those of us in the women's movement and in progressive groups have been saying right from the beginning that instead of focussing on instruments of security like the police alone, there needs to be a transformation inside the home, in schools, in communities," Suneeta Dhar, director of the women's rights group Jagori told The Hindu.
The average Indian family gives over 30,000 in cash as dowry and 40% admitted to giving large items like TVs and cars as dowry. The practise of giving large items as dowry was most common among forward caste Hindus and lowest among Muslims. Wedding expenses ranged from nearly Rs 1 lakh in the poorest village to Rs 1.7 lakh in small cities, a big jump over the 2004-5 survey. Kerala and Delhi had the most expensive weddings.

Four out of ten women in India still have no say in their marriage, eight out of ten need permission to visit a doctor, six out of ten practise some form of head covering, and the average Indian household gives over 30,000 in dowry. These are among the findings of a major new large-scale sample survey shared exclusively with The Hindu.
The National Council for Applied Economic Research (NCAER) conducts the India Human Development Survey (IHDS), the largest household survey in India after the government's Nation Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) surveys, and the NCAER is the only independent body that conducts such large-sample panel surveys. The survey covers economic data on income and expenditure, development data on education and health, and sociological data on caste, gender and religion. For the next two weeks, The Hindu will report exclusively on the key findings of NCAER's latest round that covers 2011-12 data. This survey covered 42,000 households across the country, weighted nationally, and 83% of them were also interviewed for the 2004-5 round of the IHDS.
The data shows that India has made progress in child marriage, with 48% of women over 25 reporting in 2011-12 that they were married before the age of 18 as opposed to 60% in 2004-5. The average number of children that women (over 40) reported they had had has also come down slightly to 3.55, indicating that fertility is falling. The practice of marrying a cousin or relative – more common in the south than the north – is becoming less common, but over 20% in Andhra Pradesh and Karnata still marry relatives.
However, women's autonomy remains severely constrained. 41% of women had no say in their marriage and just 18% knew their husbands before marriage, a statistic that has not improved. Women's say in marriage rose with their level of education, with income and with level of urbanisation and the southern states did better.
Just 10% said that they could take the primary decision to buy large items for the house, less than 20% had their names on the house's papers and 81% needed permission to visit a doctor. 60% of women – including 59% of forward caste Hindus and 83% of Muslim women – practised some form of `purdah' or `ghunghat'. Over half of all women said it was common for women in their community to be beaten if they went out without permission.
"Those of us in the women's movement and in progressive groups have been saying right from the beginning that instead of focussing on instruments of security like the police alone, there needs to be a transformation inside the home, in schools, in communities," Suneeta Dhar, director of the women's rights group Jagori told The Hindu.
The average Indian family gives over 30,000 in cash as dowry and 40% admitted to giving large items like TVs and cars as dowry. The practise of giving large items as dowry was most common among forward caste Hindus and lowest among Muslims. Wedding expenses ranged from nearly Rs 1 lakh in the poorest village to Rs 1.7 lakh in small cities, a big jump over the 2004-5 survey. Kerala and Delhi had the most expensive weddings.

KOLKATA: Two persons have been detained in connection with the gang-rape of a 72-year-old nun at a school-cum-convent in West Bengal's Ranaghat in the early hours of Saturday. Yesterday, the police had released CCTV footage of four dacoits who allegedly sexually assaulted the nun.

According to the police, the four were part of a gang of around six men who broke into the Convent of Jesus and Mary, gagged the lone security guard on duty and then sexually assaulted the nun around 4 am. The men also allegedly ransacked the church and fled with 8-9 lakh.

The police had announced a reward of 1 lakh for any information leading to their arrest.

Condemning the "horrific" crime, the Mamata Banerjee government yesterday ordered a probe by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and promised "swift, strongest action" against those involved.

Ms Banerjee, in a statement issued by her Trinamool government, also said that "religious politics was being practised in the name of ghar wapasi" and that "religious fanaticism is on the rise".

The issue of ghar wapasi - a campaign by hardliner Hindu groups to convert Christians and Muslims to Hinduism - has seen the Narendra Modi government come under fierce attack from the Opposition in the last few months. Opponents say that since coming to office, Mr Modi has failed to rein in affiliate groups of his party, the BJP, from suggesting that the government will follow a Hindu agenda. The allegations have been further exacerbated by a a series of attacks recently on Christian institutions and churches in Delhi and a few other places.

"A religious fanaticism has been created in the country. Different churches are being attacked at various places. In the name of 'ghar wapasi', people are being religiously provoked," Firhad Hakin, Urban Development Minister, said on Saturday.

The condition of the nun, who underwent a surgery yesterday, is stable, according to doctors.

Afghanistan worst place in the world for women, but India in top five
Survey shows Congo, Pakistan and Somalia also fail females, with rape, poverty and infanticide rife

• Interactive: Facts, figures and females' stories
• In depth: Afghanistan | India | Somalia | Congo | Pakistan
A woman works at a sunflower field at Kunwarpur village, east of Allahabad, India. Her country has been ranked the fourth worst in the world for women. Photograph: Rajesh Kumar Singh/APOwen BowcottShares
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Targeted violence against female public officials, dismal healthcare and desperate poverty make Afghanistan the world's most dangerous country in which to be born a woman, according to a global survey released on Wednesday.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Pakistan, India and Somalia feature in descending order after Afghanistan in the list of the five worst states, the poll among gender experts shows.
The appearance of India, a country rapidly developing into an economic super-power, was unexpected. It is ranked as extremely hazardous because of the subcontinent's high level of female infanticide and sex trafficking.

The Price Of Being A Woman: Slavery In Modern Iindia
By Justin Huggler
04 April 2006 The Independent

The desire for sons has created a severe shortage of marriageable young women. As their value rises, unscrupulous men are trading them around the subcontinent and beyond as if they were a mere commodity
Tripla's parents sold her for £170 to a man who had come looking for a wife. He took her away with him, hundreds of miles across India, to the villages outside Delhi. It was the last time she would see her home. For six months, she lived with him in the village, although there was never any formal marriage. Then, two weeks ago, her husband, Ajmer Singh, ordered her to sleep with his brother, who could not find a wife. When Tripla refused, he took her into the fields and beheaded her with a sickle.
When Rishi Kant, an Indian human rights campaigner, tracked down Tripla's parents in the state of Jharkhand and told them the news, her mother broke down in tears. "But what could we do?" she asked him. "We are facing so much poverty we had no choice but to sell her

We need to combat problems at their root. People should not have the right to have or care for children unless they are prepared and willing to raise them with mindset to respect the law.

Encouraging behavior, by example or instruction, that antagonizes the rights of others should be grounds for child development services to intervene. Problem is there barely exists resources to provide for healthy development of all children as is, it doesn't help to take some from destructive parents with nowhere to support them.

Also people have the right to do as they please with their bodies, more or less. So this is obviously not something that can be outlawed directly but society and government need to find ways to discourage the criminally backward from raising children.

With benefits of automation we've reached a point in the evolution of society where adding raw numbers of humans no longer generates wealth if the resources don't exist for the new lives to be leveraged toward creative or innovative pursuits suitable to push a given nation's current boundaries of technological and social potential.

If human nature precludes citizens from adjusting our culture or popular mindset toward requirements of the day for society to prosper, then people require institutions of government to intervene in order to facilitate reform. Not for India or for developing countries but for all nations.

IndiaHuman rights summary
Sexual abuse and other forms of violence against women and children remains a problem while the latter are “engaged in the worst forms of labour” highlighted by Kailash Satyarthi, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014. Last year, the world stood aghast as more than a dozen women died in November after they had sterilisation procedures in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh. Despite guidelines for the medical treatment and examination of women and children who report rape, the government did not allocate “resources necessary for their implementation” HRW also point out that many Indian security force members “enjoy impunity for serious human rights violations”.

Indian sisters to be raped as 'punishment' for brother eloping Two Indian sisters 'sentenced' to be raped and then paraded naked around the streets with their faces blackened in another example of India's scandalous 'village justice'
Two Indian sisters to be raped as 'punishment' for thier brother eloping in Uttar Pradesh state Photo: Alamy

Meenakshi Kumari, who is 23, and her younger sister, will then be paraded naked with their faces blackened through the streets, according to a ruling from the all-male village council.

The sisters have petitioned the country's Supreme Court to be protected from the so-called "eye-for-an-eye" ruling from the village council in Uttar Pradesh state, 30 miles from the capital Delhi.

The family are from the Dalit caste, historically known as "untouchables". However, the brother fell in love with a woman from the higher, Jat, caste.

The woman was forced into an arranged marriage in February with a man from her own caste despite her relationship, according to Zee news, citing the elder sister Meenakshi.

The couple eloped in March, but returned to the village after the man's family were allegedly tortured by police.

The village council then made its ruling that the Dalit family should be dishonoured to "avenge" the brother's supposed crime.

Rape protests in New Delhi in 2013 Photo: AP

Meenakshi and her sister ran away to the capital after the ruling was handed out and were able to submit their petition for protection for their family at the Supreme Court. However, they are still facing the punishment when they return home.

The "courts" often order honour killings and sexual "punishments" and are frequently allowed to operate completely outside the Indian legal system, despite the Supreme Court labelling them "kangaroo courts".

Jats are powerful sources of votes and few politicians have been prepared to challenge the system.

Amnesty International has set up a petition against the punishment, stating: "Nothing could justify this abhorrent punishment. It’s not fair. It’s not right. And it’s against the law."